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STATUK OlM'Rl'Sini'N r PKANKI.IN I'M K(l- 

Unveiled at Concord, i\i:\v Hami'siiiri 

NovEMin.R 25, 1914 




ADDRESS OF 
WILLIAM !•:. ("IL\\nLi:R 



THE RUMFORD PRESS 
CONCORD. N. H. 



C-^S 



U.\"\];iMXG ON NO\E.MliEK 25. 1914, OF I'lIK STATUE OF 

l■'i^\XI^TJ\ PIERCE, EKKCTEl) liV THE STATE 

OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



OKDER OF KXEKCISES 



Assembling at the Eagle Hotel*, the official party and invited guests proceeded 

to the space reserved in front of the State House yard, where the 

exercises of unveiling took place. 

Unveiling of the Statue Miss Susan H. Pierce, Hillsl^orough 

Commendation of the Sculptor Mr. Augustus Lukeman, New York 

(Made in his absence by the Presidinii Officer) 

The company next pnn-eetled to the State House where, in Representatives' 
Hall, the exercises were continued. 

Invocation Rev. George H. lieed, D.D., Concord 

Address by President of the Day Hon. Clarence E. Carr, Andover 

Dem\kry of Statue Hon. Frank P. Carpenter, Manchester 

('hairman of Pierce Statue Commission 

Accei'tanck of Statue His Excellency, Samuel D. Felker 

Governor of A^ew Hmnpshire 

Address Hon. Edgar Aldrich, Littleton 

Addkk.ss Hon. \\illiani E. Cliandlcr, ('(mcord 

Oration Hon. Oliver E. Branch, Manchester 

Address Hon. William F. Whitcher, Haverhill 

Hymn "America" 



ADDRESS m WILLIAM i;. CI I A M )LI ;i{. 

It would \)v impossihli' lor me on this occasion the 
dedication of a statue in the State House yard at Concord 
of President Franklin Pierce — to deal criticall\ with his 
character and career, or to fail to speak of him in words of 
d(>ep tenderness, for the simple reason that to me as a hoy 
h(^ was kind and heljiful and drew me to his heart with 
irresistible affection. He was a friend of my father and 
during the presidential campaign of \S~)'2 when 1 was 
seventeen years old, he came to my bedside in my h()iii(> 
on Centre Street in Concord, wliei-e 1 was sick with t'e\-er. 
and spoke to me cheering words. I was studying law with 
John H. (leorge and Sidn(\v ^\'ebster ((Jeorge ^V: Webster) 
and after the canvass opened we moved over to the law 
office of CJeneral Pierce and liis j)artner Josiah Minot where 
I worked for CJeneral Pierce in collecting the fees to which 
he was entitled alone for cases tried by him outside of 
Merrimack County where Mr. Alinot was an equal partner 
with him. I took great interest in this collection. His fees 
were ordinaril}- from five dollars to ten dollars per day and 
expenses outside of Concord! Prior to his going to Wash- 
ington on March 4, 1853, I think I had managed to collect 
about five hundred dollars, and my expenses for collection 
were about fifty dollars. There was one charge of five 
hundred dollars wliich I became exceedingly desirous of 
collecting through James Bell (later, in 1S55, elected 
United States senator) who was the senior counsel for the 
Winnipesaukee Lake Cotton and Woolen Manufacturing 
Company in a flowage case which had been tried for several 
weeks. General Pierce gave me a carefully worfled letter 
which I took to Mr. Bell but came home without the money! 
The claim was, I believe, settled witii some dcMJuction before 
the President went to Washington. 

In the spring of 1855 I was in Washington with my friend 
Isaac Andrew Hill, and Judge ]\Iinot took us to the White 



House up the back stairs where we saw the President and 
liis Secretary, Mr. Sidney Webster, and were invited to 
tea, on which occasion there were present only the two 
Concord boys and an old-fashioned Western gentleman of 
dignity and politeness. The President goodnaturedly 
reproached Mr. Hill (whose father, Isaac Hill, had been a 
Jackson democrat and a United States senator), for leaving 
the Democratic party and becoming a Know Nothing and 
a free soiler; but he did not complain of me for being a Whig 
boy from whom he could expect nothing. The White 
House had been a lonely home by reason of the sudden death 
by a railroad accident of the boy son, Benjamin Pierce, 
on January 6, 1853, after his father's election, but before 
his inauguration. 

With all these kindnesses from the President I could 
never have failed to love him and it has always remained 
certain that the boy he loved and helped would 
Be to his virtues very kind 
Be to his faults a little blind. 
So as time passed I came to praise him for his goodness 
and greatness. 

To the Grafton and Coos Bar Association, at Plymouth 
on January 6, 1888, I said of him from personal knowledge: 

All my own observation of this brilliant advocate was 
while I was a law student under seventeen years of age; but 
I could even then appreciate the fact and am able now 
confidently to say, that very few American lawyers have 
equalled him in ingenuity, tact, grace, eloquence and power 
before a juty; noi- should his ability and success as a jury 
lawyer obscui-e the further truth, that, while not a learned 
lawyer, he had one of the clearest of legal minds, and an 
unsurpassed faculty of stating and arguing legal principles. 
I think a stronger impression was made upon my youthful 
mind by the arguments which 1 heard him make on legal 
(jucstions, than by his conduct of jury cases. As a many- 
sided lawyer, capable of conducting trials of all kinds, it 
seems to me that he stood facile princeps at the New Hamp- 
shire bar, not even yielding th(> palm to the massive and 
erudite, but eccentric, Ira P(M-ley. 



Further I said on that occasion: 

The fact that Franklin Pierce hecame l*ie-i(|cnt of tlie 
United States sliouhl lead the jx'ople ot hi- iiati\e state, 
without forgetting liis mistakes, and without distinction of 
party, to do him, in some ajjpropriate method, sij^nal honor. 
On the first \\'ednes(lay in .lune. 1S4"), I'Vankhn Pierce 
and Jolin P. Hal(> lield tiiat memoiahle dehate in the Xoith 
C'hurcli in Concord, whicli was tiie actual initiative in New 
Hampshire of the great political anti-slavery contest, the 
basis of which made tlie j)olitical issues of tlie state and the 
country for tlie forty years which followed, which iiad such 
a controlling influence upon the personal fortunes of both 
these distinguislied and eh)(iuent men, and which, as to some 
of its incidents and outgrowths, has not yet come to an end. 

The heroic statue of Daniel Webster, whom New Hamp- 
shire proudly gave to be the great forensic defender of the 
Union and the Constitution and who. in spite of his pohtical 
and personal shortcomings, was th(> greatest intellect that 
America has yet i)i-oduc(Hl. fitly stands, th(> gift of a liberal 
private citizen, in front of the cai)itol at Concoid. To the 
right and to the left of this massive memorial 1 hope to 
live to see erected similar statues of Franklin Pieice, gixcn 
by New Hampshire to be president of our i-ei)ul)lic. and 
John P. Hale, the fii'st distinctive anti-slavery United .^tates 
senator and New Hampshire's noblest cliampion in the 
cause of human freedom. 

At an Old Home Day Celebration in Concord on August 
24, 1904, I also j)ublicly recorded my opinion of Pi-e>ident 
Pierce and my belief that the peoph^ of his native state, 
without forgetting his mistakes and without distinction of 
party, should do him signal honor l)y erecting his statue in 
the State House yard. 

The statue of John P. Hale having been jilaced in the 
State House yard on August 13, 1892, once more 1 ventured 
to speak in favor of the erection of a statue of President 
Pierce, at a Republican State Convention of Scptemlwr 
17, 1908. I introduced and urged this resolution: 

Resolved, That the Republican State Convention desires 
that the next legislature j^rovide for the erection in the 
State House vard at Concord of a statue of l-'ranklin Pierce. 



6 

a native and cU.stinguished citizen of New Hampshire, an 
able lawyer, an eloquent orator, a general in the national 
army, a representative in congress, a United States senator 
and a President of the United States; and the convention 
expresses the hope that this movement for the erection of 
such a memorial statue will receive the approval and sup- 
poi't of all our citizens without regard to party distinctions. 

I'nwise opposition arose and the report says: 
Mr. Chandler obtained the floor and stated that he would 
be unwilling to have the resolution passed by the conven- 
tion unless by substantially a unanimous vote and therefore 
that he withdrew the same. 

On March 4, 1913 — Woodrow Wilson's day — I made my 
last appeal for the statue, this time to the Democratic 
legislature of 1913, saying: 

If the Democrats will all advocate it, enough Republicans 
will vote for it to make its erection sure. 

All opposition from Republicans should cease. As people 
grow old they need not change their opinions, but they 
ought to moderate their animosities and recognize the good 
that is in all men. 

General Pierce in his relations with those he loved and 
those who loved him was one of the gentlest and most 
joyous of men; and of the twelve Presidents whom I have 
known and talked pleasantly with in the White House he 
came very near to being the most gracious. 

Equally with Lewis Cass and Daniel Webster, Franklin 
Pierce is entitled to have the harsh judgments of anti- 
slavery men moderated, as time passes, through a recogni- 
tion of the sincerity of their fears of a dissolution of the 
Union in connection with controversies concerning slav- 
ery. 

The strength of this plea in their behalf has been felici- 
tously shown by Mr. Blaine and distinctly by me as appears 
in a memorandum published by me in 1908. I earnestly 
hope that evei-y citizen of New Hampshire will in the era 
of the present day give his voice in favor of a statue, erected 
by the state of New Hampshire and not by any individual, 
of Piesident Franklin Pierce. 

It was most gratifying to me and creditable to the 
])eople of New Hampshire that without any further mani- 



fostation of jiarty aniinosify tlic l(><;islaliii(' on M;i\ 1.'^, 
1913, passed a law directing the ( loxcnioi- and ( Dnncil to 
erect the statue and making' an appropriMt ion thcicfor; 
and tlio result of tliis coniincndahlc action stands hcfoic us 
in till' graceful statue of Franklin Picicc toda.\- un\('ii('(|. 
We are now here, citizens of both politics, to n'lvc lo the 
Presid(>nt's memory the pi'aisc and honor which i> implied 
in the exist(Mice of the memorial. 

On four oilicial occasions it has been my duty to deal 
with the questions of the judgments which should he dcdt 
out to what were called the pro-sla\'eiy statesmen of the 
ante-war period. 

The fii'st was on the recei)tion by the ( 'ongi-ess of a statue 
of Lew'is Cass fi'om the State of Michigan on IVhiiiarx- is 
and 21, 1S.S9; the second on the recej^tion by Congress of a 
statue of Daniel Webster (with one of John IStark) from the 
State of New Hampshire, on December 20, 1S94; the third 
on the unveiling of a statue of Mr. Webster in Washington 
presented to the United States by Stilson Hut chins on 
January 18, 1900; and the fourth on the celebration of the 
restoration of the Birthplace House of Mr. Webster at 
Franklin, New^ Hampshire, on August 28, 191.3. 

It will be an honor to me whenever a citizen of my native 
state, which has so much honored me, will read the words 
of praise which I am able to give to these distinguish(Ml incn 
who gave renown to the state of their nativity down to and 
including the last, wdiose statue we now unveil too long 
delayed in its erection. 

In considering the question there is no wi.sdom in ignoring 
the reasons for the delay wdiich has taken place. They 
are President Pierce's relations to the subject of slavery. 
He was a pro-slavery president and thei-efore nuist have 
no statue — it is said. At the end of fifty years after slavery 
has been blotted out of existence this reason should be 
disregarded. 

The same objection could be made to statues of two other 
sons of New Hampshire Lewis Cass and Daniel ^^'ebster; 



8 

j'et the statue of Cass, given by the Republican state of 
Michjoan to the national gallery, was received by Congress 
witli (nilogies )iarti('ii)at(Hl in l)y the New Hampshire delega- 
tion, and th(> statue of Webster was given by New Hamp- 
shire to that gall(M-y with ap})ropriate ceremonies, and a 
like statue of W^ebster was given to the state by a private 
citizen, was received by the commonwealth and placed 
conspicuously in the State House yard and now stands there 
in company with the statues of John Stark and John P. 
Hale. On none of these occasions was there any attempt 
to avoid consideration of the hostility which had existed 
against both Cass and Webster; both had been denounced 
with extreme bitterness, the one as always a pro-slavery 
man, the other as having wholly forsaken the anti-slavery 
cause. You all know the animosities aroused in those days. 
But they did not continue to prevail against Cass and 
Webster. They ought not longer to prevail against Pierce. 
The real reason why we should not at this late day longer 
refrain from erecting statues to such men is that their hesi- 
tancy to make efforts for the abolition of slavery, their will- 
ingness to make compromises in behalf of slavery, arose 
from their deep devotion to the union of these states which 
it was believed would be endangered if controversy over 
slavery continued. Bear in mind that these men were 
nearer to the days of the formation of the constitution 
than we now are after more than one hundred years of 
national life have passed, and the Union has been cemented 
and strengthened as the result of bloody war. They felt 
during the first half of the nineteenth century that the 
Union, although a very sacred bond, might easily be broken 
into numerous discordant single states if the love of the 
Union was not cherished in the hearts of all men and sacri- 
fices made for its preservation. Upon this point Mr. Blaine 
shows the reasons why the utmost allowance should be made 
for these great men of New Haini)shire who were in favor 
of yielding iniicli to slaxcry in ()i-(1(m- to save the Union and 
who, ahhougli tlicv were mistaken in tluMr conclusions, are 



9 

still (MllitliMJ to lie I('III('IiiIh'1('(| ;i||(1 li()li()fc(l ;i> li(ili<'>| ;iii<l 
siiK'crt' in t heir ])iiliii<" opinions ;iii( I p.-il riot ic in t heir n;il ional 
conduct. 

Mr. BlATXK's Mxi'I.WATION Ol Mli. WliH.N'I'Kit's .VCTION. 

Mr. Blaine in his •'rwcnly Years of ( "onRross*' (X'ol. 1, 
page 93) attribute- Mi. W'el^ster's pro-slavery action to 
sincere sentiments ol' patriotism, lie says: 

lie belonged with those who could rememher the first 
president, who })ers{)nally knew nuich of the hardshij)S 
and sorrows of the Re^•olutionary period, who were horn 
to poverty and reai-ed to j)rivation. To these the formation 
of the fe(l(M-al government had come as a gift from llea\-en 
and they had heard from the lips of tlu^ Ii\ing Washington 
his farewell words that "the Tnion is the edilice of our real 
independence, the sui)i)ort of our tran(|uillity at home, oui- 
peace abroad, our j)i'osi)(>rity, our safety and of the very 
liberty which we so highly prize; that for this Union we 
should cherish a cordial, habitual, immovable attachment, 
and should discountenance wliatever may suggest even a 
sus])icion that it can in any e\-ent be abandoned." 

Mr. We])ster had in his own lifetime seen the thirteen 
colonies grow to thirty powerful states. He had seen three 
millions of people, enfeebled and imjioverished by a long 
struggle, increased eightfold in number, siu-round(Ml by all 
the comforts, charms and securities of life. All this spoke 
to him of the Union and of its priceless blessings. He now 
heard its advantages discussed, its perix-tuity doubtcMl. its 
existence threatened. 

A convention of slaveholding states had been called to 
meet at Nashville for the pur])ose of considering the possible 
separation of the sections. Mr. W(>bster felt that a geniM-a- 
tion had been born who were undervaluing their inheritance 
and who might by temerity destroy it. Under motives 
imposed by these surroundings, he spoke for the preservation 
of the Union. He believed it to be seriously endangenMl. 
His a})iirehensi()ns were ri(licul(><l by maii>- who ten years 
after Mr. Webster was in his grave saw for the first tinic 
how real and how terril)le were the perils upon which those 
apprehensions were founded. . . . The thoughtful re- 
consideration of his severest critics must allow that Mr. 
Webster saw before him a dividiMJ duty, nnd that he chose 



10 

the part which in his patriotic judgment was demanded by 
the supreme danger of the hour. 

But while accepting us just, and reiterating as I have 
on the occasions referred to, this vindication by Mr. Blaine 
of the "Union savers" who were unkindly reproached in 
their day of deljate, it is necessary for me to avow that it is 
easier for me to do this in behalf of the advocates of the 
compromise measures of 1850 than in behalf of the states- 
men who four years later devised and carried to a passage 
through Congress the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. 

This repeal was utterly indefensible, even although 
sustained by the unjust and unfortunate Dred Scott deci- 
sion, and remains a wrongful act of the American Congress, 
which was fraught with distressing consequences. Yet, 
even here, because their public action was, as much as Mr. 
Webster's, based upon an "honest motive" Stephen A. 
Douglas and Franklin Pierce are to be acquitted of unforgiv- 
able public acts and are to be praised and honored for 
their careers as a whole of statesmanship and patriotism. 

Therefore, now so it is, that in my declining years, I 
find myself unable to harshly criticize and condemn any of 
the leaders of the first ninety years of American Independ- 
ence, or to withhold from any of them, by reason of such 
faults and mistakes as may be developed in any career of 
prominence, the praises that are due to them for any wise 
and noble and patriotic deeds. 

Those of President Pierce were narrated down to 1852 
by his Bowdoin College associate and constant friend, 
Nathaniel Hawthorne, in a most attractive and felicitous 
campaign biography in that year, and were fully recorded 
in 1888 in Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography 
by one who had been a United States senator from New 
Hampshire — Bainbridge Wadleigh, a Republican, in a fair 
and accurate recital. 

Franklin Pierce was a scholar of sui)erior knowledge, an 
orator of captivating eloquence, a lawyer of acute learning, 
a trial advocate of unsuri)assed skill and force, a brave 



11 

soldier on tlic halt Iclit'ld of lii- coiiiiiiy, a |)uljlic ollicinl 
of ability and (idolity, and a I'lcsidciil of consciontiousness 
and patriotism, whose statue in this State House yard is 
fittinoly the eonipanion of that of the soldier .lohn Stark 
and of those of the statesmen l)aniel WChster and John P. 
Hale. liefor(> future ^eiiei'ations thei'e will continu*' to 
stand here this testimonial to President Pieree from all the 
peo})le of his state asserting his high character, his splendid 
achievements and the noble traits which made him .idmired 
and bclo\'ed bv his count rxinen. 



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